Novel Restriction Endonucleases, DNA Encoding These Endonucleases and Methods for Identifying New Endonucleases with the Same or Varied Specificity

ABSTRACT

Specified restriction endonucleases have been characterized for the first time by their amino acid and DNA sequences. These sequences and those with at least 90% identity thereto have been used as probes in sequence similarity analyses to identify sequence matches in a sequence database that corresponds to novel restriction endonucleases or isoschizomers. The sequence similarity analyses includes selecting a positive sequence match from any sequence producing an expectation value of less than or equal to e−02.

CROSS REFERENCE

This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/997,614, filed on Feb. 1, 2008 which is a §371 application of international application number PCT/US2006/030419 filed on Aug. 3, 2006, which claims priority from U.S. provisional application No. 60/705,504 filed on Aug. 4, 2005, herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

Restriction endonucleases are enzymes that occur naturally in certain unicellular microbes—mainly bacteria and archaea—and that function to protect those organisms from infections by viruses and other parasitic DNA elements. These enzymes bind to specific sequences of nucleotides (‘recognition sequence’) in double-stranded DNA molecules (dsDNA) and cleave the DNA, usually within or close to the recognition sequence, disrupting the DNA and triggering its destruction. Restriction endonucleases commonly occur with one or more companion enzymes termed modification DNA methyltransferases. DNA methyltransferases bind to the same sequences in dsDNA as the restriction endonucleases they accompany, but instead of cleaving the DNA, they alter it by the addition of a methyl group to one of the bases within the sequence. This modification (‘methylation’) prevents the restriction endonuclease from binding to that site thereafter, rendering the site resistant to cleavage. Methyltransferases function as cellular antidotes to the restriction endonucleases they accompany, protecting the cell's own DNA from destruction by its restriction endonucleases. Together, a restriction endonuclease and its companion modification methyltransferase(s) form a restriction-modification (R-M) system, an enzymatic partnership that accomplishes for microbes what the immune system accomplishes, in some respects, for multicellular organisms.

A large and varied class of restriction endonucleases has been classified as ‘Type II’ class of restriction endonucleases. These enzymes cleave DNA at defined positions, and when purified can be used to cut DNA molecules into precise fragments for gene cloning and analysis.

New Type II restriction endonucleases can be discovered by a number of methods. The traditional approach to screening for restriction endonucleases, pioneered by Roberts et al. and others in the early to mid 1970's (e.g. Smith, H. O. and Wilcox, K. W., J. Mol. Biol. 51:379-391 (1970); Kelly, T. J. Jr. and Smith, H. O., J. Mol. Biol. 51:393-409, (1970); Middleton, J. H. et al., J. Virol. 10:42-50 (1972); and Roberts, R. J. et al., J. Mol. Biol. 91:121-123, (1975)), was to grow small cultures of individual strains, prepare cell extracts and then test the crude cell extracts for their ability to produce specific fragments on small DNA molecules (see Schildkraut, I. S., “Screening for and Characterizing Restriction Endonucleases”, in Genetic Engineering, Principles and Methods, Vol. 6, pp. 117-140, Plenum Press, NY, N.Y. (1984)). Using this approach, about 12,000 strains have been screened worldwide to yield the current harvest of almost 3,600 restriction endonucleases (Roberts, R. J. et al., Nucl. Acids. Res. 33:D230-D232 (2005)). Roughly, one in four of all strains examined, using a biochemical approach, show the presence of a Type II restriction enzyme.

An in silico screening technique to identify restriction-modification systems has also been described and has been successfully used to identify novel restriction endonucleases (US-2004-0137576-A1). This method relies on identifying new methylases by their consensus sequences. Methylases have much more conservation of amino acid sequence, because they all must bind the methyl donor cofactor S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) and bind the nucleotide to be methylated, either an adenine or a cytosine base, and then perform the methyl transfer chemistry. Although there are several classes of methyltransferases, there are many sequenced examples of methylases and these have well conserved motifs that can be used to identify a protein sequence in a database as a methylase. In this method, identifying restriction endonucleases relies on testing any or all open reading frame (ORF) protein sequences located near the identified methylases.

Since the various Type II restriction enzymes appear to perform similar biological roles and share the biochemistry of causing dsDNA breaks, it might be thought that they would closely resemble one another in amino acid sequence. Experience shows this not to be true, however. Surprisingly, far from sharing significant amino acid similarity with one another, most enzymes appear unique, with their amino acid sequences resembling neither other restriction enzymes nor any other known proteins. Thus the Type II restriction endonucleases seem either to have arisen independently of each other during evolution or to be evolving very rapidly thereby losing apparent sequence similarity, so that today's enzymes represent a heterogeneous collection rather than one or a few distinct families.

Restriction endonucleases are biochemically diverse in their function: some act as homodimers, some as monomers, others as heterodimers. Some bind symmetric sequences, others asymmetric sequences; some bind continuous sequences, others discontinuous sequences; some bind unique sequences, others multiple sequences. Some are accompanied by a single methyltransferase, others by two, and yet others by none at all. When two methyltransferases are present, sometimes they are separate proteins; at other times they are fused. The orders and orientations of restriction and modification genes vary, with all possible organizations occurring. Given this great diversity among restriction endonucleases, it is perhaps not surprising that it has not been possible to form consensus sequences that can be used for in silico searches that are able to identify Type II restriction endonucleases, as has been successfully done for DNA methyltransferases. Thus there is no general common amino acid sequence motif(s) that can be used to identify restriction endonucleases from translated raw DNA sequence ab initio.

Although restriction endonucleases lack conserved sequence motifs and generally have highly diverged DNA and amino acid sequences, some restriction endonucleases are in fact related to one another and, though they may diverge in function, these endonucleases or families of related endonucleases share significant sequence similarity with one another. The key to unlocking these families of endonucleases is to obtain the sequence of one of the members of the related enzymes; from this sequence the other members of the family can be identified. With the advent of whole genome sequencing, many prokaryotic DNA sequences, and from the DNA sequence many amino acid sequences, have become available. Thus there are many amino acid sequences in the database with no known function. This pool of sequences undoubtedly contains numerous restriction endonucleases. The problem is how to identify which genes encode restriction endonucleases, and then how to characterize the function of these genes.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment of the invention, a DNA segment encoding a restriction endonuclease and the corresponding amino acid sequence is described where the DNA has at least 90% sequence identity with a DNA sequence selected from SEQ ID NOS: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107, 109, 111, 113, 115, 117, 119, 121, 123, 125, 127, 129, 131, 133, 135, 137, 139, 141, 143, 145, 147, 149, 151, 153, 157, 159, 161, 163, 165, 167, 169, 171, 173, 175, 177, 179, 181, 183, 185, and 187 or the amino acid sequence has at least 90% sequence identity with an amino acid sequence selected from SEQ ID NOS: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 148, 150, 152, 156, 158, 160, 162, 164, 166, 168, 170, 172, 174, 176, 178, 180, 182, 184, 186 and 188.

In an additional embodiment of the invention, an identified restriction endonuclease is provided which has an amino acid sequence identified by an Expectation value of less than or equal to e−02 in a BLAST search when an amino acid sequence having at least 90% sequence identity to the amino acid sequences listed above is used for searching the database. In the context of the embodiments of the invention, “an” is not intended to be limited to “one.”

In an additional embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for identifying a restriction endonuclease, that includes: (a) selecting one or more probes having at least 90% sequence identity to a sequence selected from SEQ ID NOS:1-153 and 156-188; (b) comparing the one or more probes with a database of sequences by a sequence similarity analysis to identify a sequence match; and (c) identifying the restriction endonuclease from the sequence match.

Examples of a sequence similarity analysis include a BLAST search and a PSI Blast search using an expectation value, E of less than or equal to e−02 (E≦e−02).

The sequence similarity analysis may further include analyzing the expectation value assigned to a sequence match and the distribution of sequence similarity between the probe and the sequence match.

In another embodiment, the sequence similarity analysis utilizes sequence comparisons such that, where the amino acid sequence match is in a genome sequence within the database, a methyltransferase sequence adjacent to the restriction endonuclease sequence can be identified and characterized by sequence similarity analysis to provide information about the restriction endonuclease.

In another embodiment of the invention, the restriction endonuclease is further characterized by biochemistry to determine the recognition and cleavage sites for the restriction endonuclease. The functional characteristics of the restriction endonuclease may further be characterized by thermostability, pH range and optima, star activity, etc. using methodology described in the prior art.

In a further embodiment of the invention, a method for identifying a restriction endonuclease is provided that includes: (a) selecting one or more probes having at least 90% sequence identity to a known restriction endonuclease sequence; (b) comparing the one or more probes with a database of sequences by a sequence similarity analysis to identify a sequence match, wherein a sequence match is any sequence producing an expectation value, E≦e−02; and (c) identifying the restriction endonuclease from the sequence match.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 (1-1 to 1-6) shows a list of restriction enzymes and their respective recognition sequences.

FIG. 2 (2-1 to 2-58) shows the DNA and amino acid sequences of the restriction enzymes listed in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows the number of observed matches at Expectation values ranging from E=e−01 to E=e−10 using targeting sequences selected from FIG. 2 in a sequence similarity analysis using the GENBANK non-redundant database and a BLAST similarity search.

For each enzyme, the following steps were performed:

-   -   1. GenBank's NR database (July, 2006 release) was queried with         the enzyme's amino acid sequence using the BLAST program [1]         with its low complexity filter turned off.     -   2. The first 64 hits were taken from BLAST's output and counted         the number of hits with e-values lower than 10^(−x) (x=10, 9, .         . . , 1).

REFERENCES

-   1. BLASTP 2.2.10 [Oct.-19-2004] -   Reference: Altschul, Stephen F., Thomas L. Madden, Alejandro A.     Schaffer, Jinghui Zhang, Zheng Zhang, Webb Miller, and David J.     Lipman (1997), “Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of     protein database search programs”, Nucleic Acids Res. 25:3389-3402.

FIGS. 4A-4D provide a list of restriction endonucleases identified by PSI BLAST searches using BclI and EagI amino acid sequences.

FIG. 4A shows sequences with significant alignments to BclI.

FIG. 4B shows PSI-BLAST alignments between BclI, “query” sequence, and the restriction endonucleases identified, the “Sbjct” sequences. Identities and positives (similar amino acids) are shown between the query and subject sequences.

FIG. 4C shows PSI-BLAST significant alignments to EagI.

FIG. 4D shows PSI-BLAST alignments between EagI, “query” sequence, and the restriction endonucleases identified, the “Sbjct” sequences. Identities and positives (similar amino acids) are shown between the query and subject sequences.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The amino acid sequences for a group of restriction enzymes are described herein for the first time. The use of these sequences and corresponding DNA sequences are described in a novel method for finding restriction endonucleases in a sequence database. Statistically significant sequence similarity between known restriction endonucleases and sequences in the database can reveal new and useful tools for molecular biology in the form of isochizomers, neoschizomers and restriction endonucleases with novel recognition sequences.

Embodiments of the method are based on finding at least a minimum amount of sequence similarity between an amino acid or DNA sequence in a sequence database and a probe. (A “probe” may refer to an amino acid sequence or significant portion thereof (or a DNA sequence or significant portion thereof) of the specified restriction endonuclease). The identified sequence having similarity to a probe may be referred to as “a sequence match”. In one embodiment, the sequence match is assumed to be a restriction endonuclease if an expectation value requirement of E=e≦−02 is met. Analysis of sequence similarity between the probe and the sequence match indicates whether the newly identified restriction endonuclease is likely to be an isochizomer of a known restriction endonuclease, or a new restriction endonuclease recognizing and/or cleaving at a previously unknown site(s). In addition, the determination of the amino acid or DNA sequence similarity of any methyltransferase encoded by a DNA sequence that is located at an adjacent site on a genome to a gene encoding the newly identified restriction endonuclease can assist in classifying the restriction endonuclease. Confirmation of the recognition and cleavage sites of a restriction endonuclease identified by sequence similarity analysis can be achieved by biochemistry methods described herein as well as the biochemical properties of the enzyme such as pH and heat sensitivity.

In silico screening has established that similarity occurs between restriction enzyme gene sequences only when the two enzymes are related to one another. Such related restriction endonucleases may be isoschizomers; i.e. they recognize exactly the same sequence and cut at the same position, but come from different microorganisms (e.g. Lubys, A. et al., Gene 141:85-89 (1994); Withers, B. E. et al., Nucl. Acids. Res. 20:6267-6273 (1992)); have related recognition sequences (i.e., they recognize sequences that may be subsets of each other (e.g. HincII GTYRAC and MjaIV GTNNAC (US-2004-0137576-A1)) or share several common nucleotides (e.g., BsaI GGTCTC and BsmBI CGTCTC), or have similar catalytic properties but recognize different DNA sequences, such as MmeI [TCCRACN20/N18 (SEQ ID NO:154)] and CstMI [AAGGAGN20/N18 (SEQ ID NO:155)].

Although restriction endonucleases cannot be identified from common sequence motifs, a method is provided herein to search a sequence database for significant matches (sequence matches) to sequences of specified restriction endonucleases (probes). It is anticipated that sequence matches and probes may be derived from a common ancestor. Some of the sequence matches may be isoschizomers. However probes can be used to successfully identify novel restriction endonucleases that recognize and/or cleave DNA sequences that are different from that recognized and/or cleaved by the probes, and which may be novel DNA recognition sequences. In principle, any amino acid sequence of a restriction endonuclease having at least 90% identity with a sequence of a specified restriction endonuclease can be tested in databases to discover previously unknown restriction endonucleases. A limitation on discovery of novel restriction endonucleases in sequence databases is thus the availability of probes.

The likelihood that a sequence identified by this method will in fact be a restriction endonuclease depends on the choice of the level of statistical significance used for the identification of restriction endonuclease candidates; i.e. a less stringent threshold of statistical significance will result in more false positive hits (sequences that are not restriction endonucleases), but will include those restriction endonucleases (true positives) that are more highly diverged from the known restriction endonuclease and thus perhaps more likely to have a different recognition sequence or different biochemical characteristics. Conversely, a more stringent threshold will insure that most or all of the hits are restriction endonuclease genes (few false positives), but will likely exclude some restriction endonucleases (false negatives) having relatively less sequence similarity. Thus, selection of the probability functions determines the stringency of the selection and the likelihood that candidate sequences identified are in fact restriction endonucleases. We use the Expectation value of the BLAST program to set the cutoff for finding restriction endonucleases. When the Expectation value is E=e−02 or less, the sequence match can be predictably identified as a restriction endonuclease. Close proximity to a methylase is further confirmation that the sequence is an endonuclease, and the methylase can be used to protect host cells when expressing the potential endonuclease in a new host.

The specified amino acid and nucleic acid sequences for the restriction endonucleases provided in FIG. 2 are previously unknown and result from the cloning and sequencing of these restriction endonucleases, along with, in most cases, their methyltransferase(s) using biochemical methods. Biochemical methods for obtaining purified restriction enzymes and their sequences include the methylase selection method (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,015, U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,823, U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,673, U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,333, U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,957), while specific examples of cloning and/or purification for individual restriction endonucleases are U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,768, U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,691, U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,569, U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,882, U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,823, U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,354, U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,068, U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,680, U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,151, U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,294, U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,332, U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,074, U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,293, US RE:35,248, U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,906, U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,522, U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,404, U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,794, U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,331, U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,330, U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,651, U.S. Pat. No. 5,202,248, U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,942, U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,060, U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,232, U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,006, U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,696, U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,476, U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,318, U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,371, U.S. Pat. No. 5,208,157, U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,542, U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,882, U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,678, U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,308, U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,153, U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,185, U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,484, U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,126, U.S. Pat. No. 5,824,529, U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,067, U.S. Pat. No. 5,786,195, U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,326, U.S. Pat. No. 5,849,558, U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,422, U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,398, U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,288, U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,818, U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,793, U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,929, U.S. Pat. No. 6,025,179, U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,731, U.S. Pat. No. 6,258,583, U.S. Pat. No. 6,238,901, U.S. Pat. No. 6,130,078, U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,719, U.S. Pat. No. 6,133,008, U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,545, U.S. Pat. No. 6,066,487, U.S. Pat. No. 6,194,188, U.S. Pat. No. 6,133,009, U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,190, U.S. Pat. No. 6,403,354, U.S. Pat. No. 6,395,531, U.S. Pat. No. 6,391,608, U.S. Pat. No. 6,514,737, U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,843, U.S. Pat. No. 6,596,524, U.S. Pat. No. 6,593,122, U.S. Pat. No. 6,589,769, U.S. Pat. No. 6,586,220, U.S. Pat. No. 6,673,588, U.S. Pat. No. 6,723,546, U.S. Pat. No. 6,794,172, U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,786. Methods of sequencing are well known in the art.

In Silico Searching for Restriction Endonucleases

There is no characteristic consensus amino acid sequence for type II restriction enzymes that can be used to identify a new example from a database, even though all restriction endonucleases recognize and cleave dsDNA.

There is an “endonuclease motif” that many of the restriction endonucleases share, consisting of ((DIE) X₆₋₂₀ (D/E)XK). However, this motif does not contain enough specified sequence to be used for database searching (Anderson, J. E.; Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 3: 24-30 (1993)).

As illustrated in the Examples, candidate sequences that produce Expectation values of equal to or less than e−02 when compared to any of the restriction endonuclease sequences specified in this application are likely to be restriction endonucleases. Restriction endonucleases identified from sequence matches are likely to recognize the same or related DNA sequences as the specified endonuclease with which they share significant similarity. Nonetheless, enzymes thus identified may differ in useful ways from the known restriction endonuclease with which they share sequence similarity, including having different recognition sequences, different biochemical properties, such as reaction conditions, temperature optima, methylation sensitivity, etc., or other different characteristics from the previously known endonuclease. One example of isoschizomers, which have different properties, is an isochizomer of thermolabile SapI identified as BspQI, which is the thermostable.

Accordingly, sequence matches may correspond to restriction endonucleases that are isoschizomers, which recognize an identical sequence and cleave at the same position; neoschizomers, which recognize the same DNA sequence but cleave at a different position within the DNA; or restriction endonucleases that have similar but different recognition sequences. An example of the latter is BsaI, which produces a BLAST E-value of e⁻⁶⁶ (NR Genbank database) with BsmBI, yet differs subtly in the recognition sequence as follows:

BsaI: GGTCTC BsmBI: CGTCTC

Although certain restriction enzymes listed in FIG. 1 have been identified from a variety of organisms and their recognition sequences determined, the DNA and amino acid sequences of these enzymes have not previously been obtained. These sequences are here provided in FIG. 2 and may be used not only for cloning the identified naturally occurring restriction enzymes, but also for discovering related enzymes using sequence databases such as GenBank (Benson et al., Nucleic Acids Research 32:D23-D26 (2004)) using a suitable search algorithm. Sequence similarity may be determined using in silico sequence matching programs such as BLAST ((web site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/), Altschul, S. F., et al., J. Mol. Biol. 215:403-410 (1990) or Smith, T. F. and Waterman, M. S., J. Mol. Biol. 147(1): 195-7 (1981), or PSI-BLAST ((web site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/), Altschul et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 25:3389-3402 (1997)) available in the art, or by in vitro biochemical assays such as Southern hybridization assays. An example of a search methodology is provided in Example I.

Significant sequence similarity between any one of the amino acid sequences or DNA sequences of the restriction endonuclease listed in FIG. 2 or more generally in REBASE (http://rebase.neb.com) and an unknown sequence in the database suggests that the unknown sequence is a restriction endonuclease also. Sequence similarity can be determined from alignment algorithms described above, where an Expectation value of less than e−02 is considered significant, and thus the sequence is a restriction endonuclease.

Any single alignment producing an Expectation value of less than e−02 between an amino acid sequence of FIG. 2 and an unknown sequence in the database, particularly where the unknown sequence does not appear to have sequence similarity with other sequences in the database, suggests a strong presumption that the unknown sequence is a restriction endonuclease (FIG. 3). When Expectation values are greater than e−02 but less than 2 between two sequences, the unknown sequence identified by the method may be presumed to be an endonuclease if there is additional supporting information, such as that the unknown sequence is located next to a methylase in its genome sequence context. The presence of a methylase gene adjacent or close to the unknown sequence identified by the method strengthens the likelihood that the unknown sequence is indeed an endonuclease.

DNA and amino acid sequences of specified restriction endonucleases and methylases provided in FIG. 2 are as follows.

AciI (SEQ ID NOS:1 and 2), AclI (SEQ ID NOS:3 and 4), AflII (SEQ ID NOS:5 and 6), AflIII (SEQ ID NOS:7 and 8), ApaI (SEQ ID NOS:9 and 10), ApoI (SEQ ID NOS:11 and 12), AscI (SEQ ID NOS:13 and 14), AseI (SEQ ID NOS:15 and 16), AspCNI (SEQ ID NOS:17 and 18), AvrII (SEQ ID NOS:19 and 20), BbvI (SEQ ID NOS:21 and 22), BbvCIA (SEQ ID NOS:23 and 24), BbvCIB (SEQ ID NOS:145 and 146), BccI (SEQ ID NOS:25 and 26), BceAI (SEQ ID NOS:27 and 28), BclI (SEQ ID NOS:29 and 30), BfaIA (SEQ ID NOS:31 and 32), BfaIB (SEQ ID NOS:147 and 148), BfuAI (SEQ ID NOS:33 and 34), BlpI (SEQ ID NOS:35 and 36), BmrI (SEQ ID NOS:37 and 38), BsaJI (SEQ ID NOS:39 and 40), BscGI (SEQ ID NOS:41 and 42), BseYIA (SEQ ID NOS:43 and 44), BseYIB (SEQ ID NOS:87 and 88), BsgI (SEQ ID NOS:45 and 46), BspCNI (SEQ ID NOS:47 and 48), BspHI (SEQ ID NOS:49 and 50), BspMI (SEQ ID NOS:51 and 52), BsrBI (SEQ ID NOS:53 and 54), R1.BsrDI (SEQ ID NOS:55 and 56), R2.BsrDI (SEQ ID NOS:57 and 58), BsrI (SEQ ID NOS:59 and 60), BstEII (SEQ ID NOS:61 and 62), BsuFI (SEQ ID NOS:63 and 64), Bsu36I (SEQ ID NOS:65 and 66), Cac8I (SEQ ID NOS:67 and 68), ClaI (SEQ ID NOS:69 and 70), CviKI (SEQ ID NOS:71 and 72), DraI (SEQ ID NOS:73 and 74), EagI (SEQ ID NOS:75 and 76), Earl (SEQ ID NOS:77 and 78), EsaBC3I (SEQ ID NOS:79 and 80), EsaBC4I (SEQ ID NOS:81 and 82), EsaBS9I (SEQ ID NOS:83 and 84), EsaDix6IP (SEQ ID NOS:85 and 86), EsaLHCI (SEQ ID NOS:89 and 90), EsaS1IP (SEQ ID NOS:91 and 92), FseI (SEQ ID NOS:93 and 94), FspI (SEQ ID NOS:95 and 96), HhaI (SEQ ID NOS:97 and 98), HinP1I (SEQ ID NOS:99 and 100), MfeI (SEQ ID NOS:101 and 102), MluI (SEQ ID NOS:103 and 104), MmeII (SEQ ID NOS:105 and 106), MscI (SEQ ID NOS:107 and 108), NdeI (SEQ ID NOS:109 and 110), NgoMX (SEQ ID NOS:111 and 112), NotI (SEQ ID NOS:113 and 114), PacI (SEQ ID NOS:115 and 116), PflMI (SEQ ID NOS:117 and 118), PmeI (SEQ ID NOS:119 and 120), PshAI (SEQ ID NOS:121 and 122), PstII (SEQ ID NOS:123 and 124), PsuNI (SEQ ID NOS:125 and 126), SacII (SEQ ID NOS:127 and 128), SfoI (SEQ ID NOS:129 and 130), SpeI (SEQ ID NOS:131 and 132), TliI (SEQ ID NOS:133 and 134), TseI (SEQ ID NOS:135 and 136), Tsp509I (SEQ ID NOS:137 and 138), Tth111I (SEQ ID NOS:139 and 140), XcmI (SEQ ID NOS:141 and 142), XhoII (SEQ ID NOS:143 and 144), Acc65I (SEQ ID NOS:149 and 150), BsaAI (SEQ ID NOS:151 and 152), BsmFI (SEQ ID NOS:153 and 156), BspEI (SEQ ID NOS:157 and 158), BtsCI (SEQ ID NOS:159 and 160), BtsIA (SEQ ID NOS:161 and 162), BtsIB (SEQ ID NOS:163 and 164), EcoNI (SEQ ID NOS:165 and 166), Fnu4HI (SEQ ID NOS:167 and 168), KasI (SEQ ID NOS:169 and 170), McaTI (SEQ ID NOS:171 and 172), NciI (SEQ ID NOS:173 and 174), NruI (SEQ ID NOS:175 and 176), Sbo13I (SEQ ID NOS:177 and 178), SfcI (SEQ ID NOS:179 and 180), Stul (SEQ ID NOS:181 and 182), StyI (SEQ ID NOS:183 and 184), BsiWI (SEQ ID NOS:185 and 186), and BspQI (SEQ ID NOS:187 and 188).

All references described herein, as well as U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/705,504, are incorporated by reference. The examples are not intended to be limiting.

EXAMPLES Example 1 Method of Identifying Potential Restriction Endonuclease Using the Sequences Provided in this Application

The amino acid sequence of one of the known restriction endonucleases is used to perform a protein to protein (blastp) BLAST search, a protein to translated database (tblastn) BLAST search, or is used to perform a protein to protein PSI-BLAST iterative similarity search. For example, such a search may be performed through the NCBI web server: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast/ selecting the blastp (or tblastn) program, and searching against the NR (non-redundant) database of “all organisms,” using the standard preset values, which consist of Expect=10, word size=3, using the BLOSUM62 matrix and with gap costs of Existence=11, extension=1. The low complexity filter can be turned off for the search, as restriction endonucleases are prokaryotic proteins and generally do not contain repeats or regions of low complexity. These parameters can be varied by those skilled in the art to obtain slightly varied search results. The PSI-BLAST search can be performed for several iterations until convergence is achieved.

The output returned by the BLAST search is examined for sequences that give Expectation scores of less than or equal to e−02. These sequences are presumed to be restriction endonucleases.

The sequence context of the restriction endonucleases identified is examined to see if there is a DNA methyltransferase adjacent to or near (within one or two ORFs) the restriction endonuclease. The presence of such a methyltransferase is highly suggestive that the sequence identified using the known endonuclease sequence is an endonuclease.

The degree of similarity between the known endonuclease sequence (probe) and the sequence match can suggest whether the two sequences are isoschizomers (indicated by a high degree of similarity, for example E<e−50), or may recognize related but different sequences (indicated by a lesser degree of similarity, for example, e−10<E<e−02).

The sequence match is tested to see if it encodes a functional restriction endonuclease by any convenient methods of expressing protein from the sequence and testing that protein for endonucleolytic function, such as the methods described in Example 3. For example, the identified sequence may by amplified by PCR. The gene may then be expressed either in a cell-free in vitro transcription/translation system and the protein produced tested for endonuclease activity, or the gene may be introduced into a vector and cloned into a host cell, such as E. coli. The transformed host cells are then grown to allow the identified endonuclease gene to express protein, and a cell free lysate is prepared and tested for endonuclease activity.

Example 2 Search Results for Several of the Enzymes of this Application

A. The alignments produced by standard BLAST or PSI-BLAST is here used to predict whether a sequence match encodes or represents a newly identified restriction endonuclease and whether this restriction endonuclease is likely to have a similar substrate specificity or whether it is likely to recognize a different DNA sequence to that of the restriction endonuclease corresponding to the probe (specified restriction endonuclease). The level of sequence similarity between the probe and the sequence match and the distribution of the similarity can be used to predict whether two restriction endonucleases recognize the same or different sites on a DNA substrate. A sequence match with significant similarity to the probe spread throughout the sequences is likely to be an isoschizomer that recognizes the same DNA substrate as the specified restriction endonuclease, with the likelihood increasing as the level of similarity increases. However, a newly identified restriction endonuclease that shares significant similarity with the specified restriction endonuclease in only a portion of its sequence is less likely to be isoschizomer. In addition, a comparison of a methyltransferase encoded by a gene adjacent to the sequence match, if there is one, with methyltransferases of known DNA recognition specificity, can assist in this analysis. If the adjacent methyltransferase is most similar to methyltransferase(s) that recognize the same sequence as the specified restriction endonuclease, the likelihood that the two restriction endonucleases are isoschizomers is increased; however if the methyltransferase is most similar to methyltransferase(s) recognizing different sequences from the specified restriction endonuclease, then the likelihood that the identified restriction endonuclease differs from the recognition sequence of the specified restriction endonuclease is increased.

Results for searching using the BclI amino acid sequence on 25 Jul. 2006 (scores will change slightly as the size of the database increases, and new hits may be found as new sequences are added to the database daily). The BclI amino acid sequence from FIG. 2 was copied and pasted into the NCBI Blast web server at: http://www.ncbi/nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/ using the “Protein—protein BLAST (blastp) program. The default values for the search were used and the low complexity filter was turned off. The best scoring results are reported below:

Score E (Bits) Value Sequences producing significant alignments: gi | 27657790 | gb | AAO18218.1 | 159 1e−37 Yga2E [Corynebacterium glutamicum] . . . gi | 68248271 | gb | EAN30354.1 | 103 7e−21 hypothetical protein Mmc1DRAFT_368 . . . gi | 110287792 | sp | Q29L39 | 36.2 1.6 POE_DROPS Proteinpurity of essence >g . . . gi | 90302769 | gb | EAS32400.1 | 35.0 3.8 hypothetical protein CIMG_03424 [Cocc gi | 89286118 | gb | EAR84121.1 | 34.7 5.4 hypothetical protein TTHERM_007230 . . . gi | 4426611 | gb | AAD20450.1 | 34.3 6.9 pushover [Drosophila melanogaster]

The first two hits have E values of 1e−37 and 7e−21, both of which would indicate that these are highly likely to be restriction endonucleases. Note that the both sequences identified using BclI are reported as “hypothetical proteins,” since without a sequence of a known endonuclease with which to identify these sequences, such as the BclI sequence specified in this application, the nature of these ORFs was not known. Both of these ORFs are adjacent to an ORF identified as a methyltransferase, which strengthens the case that they are endonucleases. These ORFs can be confirmed as endonucleases, and their characteristics determined, by the techniques described in Example 3. The third and subsequent hits are outside the threshold value of E value<e−02. Note the very sharp drop off in E value results between the two endonuclease hits and the next best scoring sequences, which are outside the level of significance for identifying endonucleases described herein.

Similar results are obtained using the PSl-BLAST program with the Bcll sequence. PSl-BLAST is able to detect more distant similarities among protein sequences than standard BLAST. The expectation values produced after several iterations of PSl-BLAST are often smaller than the single pass results from standard BLAST. PSl-BLAST may detect restriction endonuclease candidate genes whose sequence is more distantly similar to the input restriction endonuclease sequence; however, PSl-BLAST errors may be amplified by the iteration process and so marginal hits with PSl-BLAST require more careful examination. A PSl-BLAST search with the Bcll amino acid sequence yields the same two hits as the standard BLAST search, although the E values are now much smaller. The Bcll amino acid sequence from FIG. 2 was copied and pasted into the NCBl Blast web server at: http://www.ncbi/nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/ using the PSI-BLAST program. The default values for the search were used. The best scoring results are reported below:

Score E (Bits) Value Sequences producing significant alignments: gi | 27657790 | gb | AAO18218.1 | 431 2e−119 Yga2E [Corynebacterium glutamicum) . . . gi | 68248271 | gb | EAN30354.1 | 242 1e−62  hypothetical protein Mmc1DRAFT 368 . . . Sequences with E-value WORSE than threshold gi | 89286118 | gb | EAR84121.1 | 37.0 0.93 hypothetical protein TTHERM_007230 . . . gi | 38570107 | ref | NP_073622.2 | 36.3 1.6  CAP-binding protein complex inte . . . gi | 8670820 | emb | CAA71749.1 | 36.3 1.7  CAP-binding protein complex intera . . .

Using the Bcll sequence of FIG. 2 in the method described clearly identifies two restriction endonuclease genes.

The PSI-BLAST output returns the alignment that produced the E values given. This alignment may be used to predict whether the restriction endonuclease identified will be an isoschizomer of BclI or will recognize a differing sequence. Here the best scoring sequence, gi:27657790 Yga2E hypothetical protein has highly significant similarity (E=2e−119) that extends over nearly the entire sequence of BclI (from amino acids 1 to 277 out of a total length of 285 amino acids) and over nearly the entire length of Yga2E (amino acids 1 to 292 out of a total length of 306 amino acids). The adjacent methyltransferase sequence best matches the M.BclI methyltransferase sequence, at an E value of e−72, having similarity throughout the sequence, and in particular in the TRD (Target (DNA) Recognition Domain) of the methyltransferase. This evidence combines to make it very likely that this restriction endonuclease gene will recognize the same sequence, TGATCA, as BclI, though it may differ in other characteristics, such as temperature optima and sensitivity, buffer optima, etc. However, the second hit, gi:68248271 hypothetical protein Mmc1DRAFT_(—)3688, appears likely to recognize a different sequence than BclI and is thus a good candidate for a new DNA specificity. This restriction endonuclease sequence has significant similarity to BclI (E=1e−62), but in contrast to the first hit, this similarity is only to the carboxy half of BclI. The approximately first half of each restriction endonuclease does not share significant similarity. In addition, the adjacent methyltransferase has significant similarity in a standard BLAST search to methyltransferases recognizing many different, though related, DNA sequences, and the similarity is at similar levels of E value and distribution throughout the methyltransferase sequence. For example, a BLAST search with this methyltransferase, Mmc1DRAFT_(—)3689, gave E value scores of e−57 to M.EacI which recognizes GGATC, e−54 to M.ThaII, recognizing GATC, e−26 to M1.BstSE1, recognizing GAGTC, e−26 to M.BstNBI, recognizing GASTC, e−20 to M.CviBI, recognizing GANTC, e−19 to M.EcoRV, recognizing GATATC and e−14 to M.TfiI, recognizing GAWTC, among many other methyltransferases. The E value for this adjacent methyltransferase and the BclI methyltransferase, M.BclI, was E=e−12. This significant but relatively equal similarity to enzymes with a wide range of recognition sequences, coupled with the finding that the significant similarity between the identified and input RE sequenced was limited to only one half of the restriction endonuclease genes indicates that the identified Mmc1DRAFT_(—)3688 is likely to recognize a different sequence than the input restriction endonuclease, BclI.

B. Results for searching using the Eagl amino acid sequence of FIG. 2 on 25 Jul. 2006 as in A above. The best scoring results from a BLAST search are reported below:

Score E (Bits) Value Sequences producing significant alignments: gi | 84686807 | ref | ZP_01014694.1 | 127 8e−28 hypothetical protein RB2654_22 . . . gi | 78773885 | gb | ABB51232.1 | 63.2 1e−08 unknown [Arthrospira platensis] gi | 67939563 | ref | ZP_00532060.1 | 55.5 3e−06 hypothetical protein Cphamn1DR . . . gi | 71901748 | ref | ZP_00683819.1 | 53.9 8e−06 conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 9105516 | gb | AAF83450.1 | 52.0 3e−05 hypothetical protein XF_0640 [Xylel . . . gi | 76260977 | ref | ZP_00768602.1 | 51.2 5e−05 conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 53688392 | ref | ZP 00345702.1 | 48.9 3e−04 hypothetical protein Npun02002 . . . gi | 78171892 | gb | ABB28988.1 | 43.1 0.015 hypothetical protein Cag_1737 [Chl . . . gi | 71491000 | gb | EAO23340.1 | 42.7 0.019 hypothetical protein SwolDRAFT_003 . . . gi | 86211168 | gb | ABC87270.1 | 42.0 0.033 NotI restriction endonuclease [Nocard gi | 20988646 | gb | AAH29858.1 | 37.7 0.62  Leucine rich repeat containing 23 [Ho gi | 89300041 | gb | EAR98029.1 | 37.4 0.81  hypothetical protein TTHERM_002842 . . .

The first seven hits have E values of less than e−02, indicating that these are likely to be restriction endonucleases. Note that the sequences identified are reported as “hypothetical protein,” “unknown” or “conserved hypothethical protein,” since the nature of these ORFs is not known. Because the E values are not very small, with the exception of the first hit, it is more likely that these endonucleases may have somewhat different recognition sequences from EagI, and indeed may recognize novel DNA sequences. All seven of these ORFs are adjacent to an ORF identified as a methyltransferase. Interestingly, the methyltransferases are of different types, with the 8e−28 hit (gi:84686807) having a 5-methyl cytosine-methyltransferase like EagI, while the other 6 hits are adjacent to an amino-methyltransferase that could modify either N4C or N6A, which is different from the EagI R-M system. These seven ORFs can be confirmed as endonucleases by the techniques described in Example 3.

The subsequent hits are outside the cut off value of E value <e−02, however two of the next best three hits are of interest. The first such hit, cag_(—)1737 (gi:78171892) is not next to an identified methylase: however, there is a methylase motif, DPPY, in the sequence adjacent to cag_(—)1737, perhaps indicating this is a R-M system that is degenerated or partially disrupted. The next best hit, SwolDRAFT_(—)0030 (gi:71491000), does have a methyltransferase adjacent to it. Even though the similarity is less than the described cut off, this gene is likely a restriction endonuclease, albeit one that is more highly diverged from EagI. The next best scoring sequence is a known restriction endonuclease, NotI. The further best scoring sequences do not appear to be restriction endonucleases. This example demonstrates that had we set the Expectation value threshold to a less stringent value, such as E<0.1, we would have included two additional true positive finds, while also including one false positive sequence (cag_(—)1737). Setting the cut off threshold at E less than or equal to e−02 ensures that the sequences identified are very likely to be restriction endonucleases.

When a PSI-BLAST similarity analysis was performed, the results were broadly similar to the BLAST search, but the differences demonstrated the increased sensitivity obtained using PSI-BLAST. After three iterations of PSI-BLAST, no additional new hits are obtained. The best scoring results from the fourth iteration are:

Score E (Bits) Value Sequences producing significant alignments: gi | 76260977 | ref | ZP_00768602.1 | 344 3e−93 conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 84686807 | ref | ZP_01014694.1 | 337 4e−91 hypothetical protein RB2654_22 . . . gi | 67939563 | ref | ZP_00532060.1 | 328 3e−88 hypothetical protein Cphamn1DR . . . gi | 78171892 | gb | ABB28988.1 | 299 9e−80 hypothetical protein Cag_1737 [Chl . . . gi | 89055379 | ref | YP_510830.1 | 288 2e−76 hypothetical protein Jann_2888 [ . . . gi | 86211168 | gb | ABC87270.1 | 286 6e−76 NotI restriction endonuclease [Nocard gi | 56677682 | gb | AAV94348.1 | 286 1e−75 hypothetical protein SPO1048 [Sili . . . gi | 71901748 | ref | ZP_00683819.1 | 268 2e−70 conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 91055161 | gb | AAF83450.1 | 266 8e−70 hypothetical protein XF_0640 [Xylel . . . gi | 70779363 | gb | AAZ08143.1 | 266 1e−69 ORF2 [Burkholderia cepacia] gi | 78773885 | gb | ABB51232.1 | 266 1e−69 unknown [Arthrospira platensis] gi | 53688392 | ref | ZP_00345702.1 | 260 6e−68 hypothetical protein Npun02002 . . . gi | 71491000 | gb | EAO23340.1 | 222 1e−56 hypothetical protein SwolDRAFT_003 . . . gi | 67935692 | ref | ZP_00528711.1 | 211 3e−53 hypothetical protein Cpha266DR . . . Sequences with E-value WORSE than threshold gi | 3660495 | emb | CAA57707.1 | 43.8 0.008 R. EcoHK31I protein [Escherichia coli] gi | 2760956 | gb | AAB95338.1 | 42.3 0.028 EaeI restriction endonuclease [Enterob gi | 893004001| gb | EAR98388.1 | 39.2 0.22  cyclic nucleotide-binding domain c . . . gi | 21355217 | ref | NP_651245.1 | 38.0 0.48  CG5728-PA [Drosophila melanogast . . .

The seven restriction endonuclease hits identified using standard BLAST were also identified by PSI-BLAST, while the more sensitive PSI-BLAST identified seven additional restriction endonucleases, three of which were the three hits just outside of the e−02 cutoff from the standard BLAST and four of which were new to the PSI-BLAST results.

The fourteen restriction endonuclease hits form five groups of related sequences. The first group consists of those sequences that appear likely to recognize the same recognition sequence as EagI. Only three of the fourteen sequences fall into this group: hypothetical proteins RB2654_(—)22558, Jann_(—)2888 and SPO1048. These three sequences are considered likely to share the EagI recognition sequence because they are adjacent to methyltransferases that are very highly similar to the EagI R-M system methyltransferase, M.EagI, with E value scores of E=0.0 using standard BLAST against the REBASE database and significant similarity through the genes, including in the region of the TRD (target recognition domain). Interestingly, only one of these sequences was identified in the EagI standard BLAST results, RB2564_(—)22558, where it is the highest scoring sequence. Because Jann_(—)2888 and SPO1048 are only identified by the PSI-BLAST, it is more likely that they may have differences in functional properties with EagI.

The second grouping includes four sequences, two of which are nearly identical, being found in the same genus and species though different strains: XF_(—)0640 and XfasoDRAFT_(—)0198, along with Arthrospira platensis ORF2 and Npun02002587. This group is likely to recognize a different sequence than EagI, which demonstrates the ability of this method to identify restriction endonucleases having different recognition sequences. All four restriction endonucleases of this group are adjacent to methyltransferases that are very highly similar (E=0.0) to the BsiWI methyltransferase, and all are significantly similar to the BsiWI RE sequence (E=2e−92 to E=9e−99 when using standard BLAST at NCBI searching the Genbank database with the BsiWI probes—SEQ ID. 185 and 186). Additionally, all four have a large gap in the PSI-BLAST alignment with EagI from amino acid position 69 to 96, which is a relatively large region of difference indicating a different function for the proteins. EagI and BsiWI recognize related sequences, differing only in the internal two bases recognized: CGGCCG (EagI) and CGTACG (BsiWI). It is interesting that the sequence similarity observed implies a common ancestor for the EagI restrcition endonuclease (and family members) and the BsiWI restriction endonuclease (and these four family members).

The third grouping is characterized by: the similarity of the sequences in a standard BLAST analysis compared with other identified restriction endonuclease sequences; and the high degree of similarity of adjacent methyltransferases, while only moderately similar to methyltransferases of known specificity in a standard BLAST. This group consists of CaurDRAFT_(—)2301, Cphamn1DRAFT_(—)2148, Burkholderia cepacia ORF2, SwolDRAFT_(—)0030 and Cpha266DRAFT_(—)1693. These five sequences are good candidates to recognize sequences different from that recognized by EagI, even though the first sequence (CaurDRAFT_(—)2301) scores the best in the PSI-BLAST results, because the adjacent methylases do not closely match any other methylase of known specificity, and because the restriction endonucleases have multiple small gaps in the alignments. In the case of Cpha266DRAFT_(—)1693, there is no adjacent methyltransferase gene. However, the C-terminal portion of the sequence has significant similarity to the methyltransferases adjacent to the other members of this group, while the N-terminal portion of this sequence matches the identified restriction endonucleases of this group. This may be a case of poor sequence data because the sequence is reported as a DRAFT, or it may be that this R-M system is degraded. The region of this gene could be amplified by PCR and sequenced to determine which is the case.

The last two groups have only one member. The first case is the cag_(—)1737 sequence. This sequence is significantly larger than EagI, at 498 amino acids versus 301 for EagI. Similarity to EagI occurs in the carboxy terminal half of the sequence, while the amino terminal portion does not have high similarity to EagI or to methyltransferases. There is no adjacent readily identifiable methyltransferase to be found near cag_(—)1737. The lack of methyltransferase and unique N-terminal half of this sequence makes it likely to be different than EagI. This would be an interesting candidate to characterize, though it is possible this may not be functioning as a typical type II restriction endonuclease.

The last group is the case of the identified NotI RE. NotI recognizes a more specific sequence, GCGGCCGC, than EagI, CGGCCG, wherein the internal six bases of the NotI recognition sequence are the same as the EagI recognition sequence. It is thus not surprising that the NotI sequence can be identified using the EagI sequence as they are likely descended from a common ancestor. Clues that the NotI gene identified might be different from EagI are that the NotI sequence is longer (383 amino acids versus 301 amino acids), that there are eight gaps in EagI sequence in the alignment with NotI, and that the methyltransferases adjacent to NotI and EagI are of different classes, wherein the M.NotI is an amino methyltransferase, while the EagI methyltransferase, M.EagI, is a 5 methyl-cytosine class methylase. Finding this restriction endonuclease having a different recognition sequence demonstrates the ability of the method to identify novel and useful new restriction endonucleases.

C. Results of searching using the Mmell amino acid sequence of FIG. 2 on 25 Jul. 2006 with the standard BLAST blastp program.

Score E (Bits) Value Sequences producing significant alignments: gi | 67916884 | ref | ZP_00510572.1 | 384 3e−105 conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 28210143 | ref | NP_781087.1 | 355 2e−96  hypothetical protein CTC00388 [C . . . gi | 109647707 | ref | ZP_01371610.1 | 348 3e−94  conserved hypothetical protei . . . gi | 89892981 | ref | YP_516468.1 | 344 4e−93  hypothetical protein DSY0235 [De . . . gi | 89209832 | ref | ZP_01188226.1 | 316 1e−84  conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 89201678 | ref | ZP_01180415.1 | 316 1e−84  conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 11016839 | gb | ABG52939.1 | 293 1e−77  conserved hypothetical protein [T . . . gi | 77412887 | ref | ZP_00789091.1 | 259 2e−67  conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 81427752 | ref | YP_394751.1 | 216 1e−54  hypothetical protein [Lactobacil . . . gi | 56295584 | emb | CAH04826.1 | 163 2e−38  conserved hypothetical protein [uncu gi | 110620011 | emb | CAJ35289.1 | 159 4e−37  conserved hypothetical protein [ . . . gi | 76260023 | ref | ZP_00767665.1 | 36.2 2.7 hypothetical protein CaurDRAFT . . . gi | 19921772 | ref | NP_1610333.1 | 36.2 3.2 CG8728-PA [Drosophila melanogast... gi | 68544761 | ref | ZP_00584368.1 | 35.4 5.5 Globin:Oxidoreductase FAD/NAD ( . . . gi | 44891709 | tpg | DAA02258.1 | 35.0 6.9 TPA: TPA_exp: S6 sporozoite-induced gi | 82594327 | ref | XP_725378.1 | 35.0 6.9 hypothetical protein PY04986 [Pl . . . gi | 68139991 | gb | EAM93304.1 | 34.7 9.9 Glycine hydroxymethyltransferase [ . . .

Note that the first eleven hits are highly significant, with E values ranging from 3e−105 to 4e−37. All are adjacent to DNA methyltransferases. Note the very sharp drop off in E value results between the eleven restriction endonuclease hits and the remainder of the hits, which are outside the level of significance for identifying endonucleases described herein. Also note that the endonucleases identified are reported as “hypothetical proteins” or “conserved hypothetical proteins.” Without the input of the known Mmell sequence these ORFs are not identified as endonucleases. These eleven ORFs can be confirmed as endonucleases by the techniques described in Example 3.

The same search using the sequence of MmeII in the PSI-BLAST program initially identifies the same eleven genes (first iteration), but after five iterations, an additional 5 restriction endonuclease genes are found. No new sequence hits were added at the sixth iteration. The PSI-BLAST results (sixth iteration) for MmeII are:

Score E (Bits) Value Sequences producing significant alignments: gi | 28210143 | ref | NP_781087.1 | 674 0.0 hypothetical protein CTC00388 [C . . . gi | 67916884 | ref | ZP_00510572.1 | 667 0.0 conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 89201678 | ref | ZP_01180415.1 | 646 0.0 conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 89209832 | ref | ZP_01188226.1 | 642 0.0 conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 110168399 | gb | ABG52939.1 | 620 4e−176 conserved hypothetical protein [T . . . gi | 109647707 | ref | ZP_01371610.1 | 617 2e−175 conserved hypothetical protei . . . gi | 89892981 | ref | YP_516468.1 | 607 4e−172 hypothetical protein DSY0235 [De . . . gi | 77412887 | ref | ZP_00789091.1 | 605 2e−171 conserved hypothetical protein . . . gi | 81427752 | ref | YP_394751.1 | 564 3e−159 hypothetical protein [Lactobacil . . . gi | 56295584 | emb | CAH04826.1 | 530 5e−149 conserved hypothetical protein [uncu gi | 110620011 |emb | CAJ35289.1 | 526 9e−148 conserved hypothetical protein [ . . . gi | 16329761 | ref | NP_1440489.1 | 169 3e−40  hypothetical protein slr1033 [Sy . . . gi | 76260023 | ref | ZP_00767665.1 | 166 2e−39  hypothetical protein CaurDRAFT . . . gi | 71143791 | gb | AAZ24264.1 | 164 5e−39  hypothetical protein CPS_0499 [Col . . . gi | 106890764 | ref | ZP_01357956.1 | 155 4e−36  hypothetical protein RoseRSDR . . . gi | 78195585 | gb | ABB33352.1 | 137 7e−31  hypothetical protein Gmet_3139 [Ge . . . Sequences with E-value WORSE than threshold gi | 47565512 | ref | ZP_00236553.1 | 41.2 0.091 hypothetical protein protein [ . . . gi | 89295649 | gb | EAR93637.1 | 40.9 0.12 cation channel family protein [Tetrah gi| 34763083 | ref | ZP_00144055.1 | 40.5 0.16 RNA polymerase sigma-54 factor . . .

The highest scoring hits (9e−148 and smaller E values) are the same eleven hits found by standard BLAST. There is still a dramatic drop off from E=7e−31 to the next best scoring sequence at E=0.091. The five additional sequence hits identified through PSI-BLAST all align with only the carboxy portion of MmeII (amino acids 248 to 423), so they likely differ from MmeII. Two have methyltransferases adjacent to them, gi:78195585 Gmet_(—)3139 and gi:71143791 CPS_(—)0499, although the methyltransferase next to CPS_(—)0499 is not labeled as a methyltransferase in the sequence annotation. The other three do not have a good adjacent methyltransferase candidate gene. These three could be restriction endonucleases like PacI or PmeI that do not have a methylase partner; they could be inactive or fragmentary restriction endonucleases; they could have a methylase partner located at some distance in their genome; or they could be false positive hits. These sixteen ORFs can be confirmed as endonucleases by the techniques described in Example 3.

Note that while BclI, EagI and MmeII identify several restriction endonuclease sequences in the Genbank database, many of the restriction endonuclease sequences of FIG. 2 currently have no matches in the database at the specified E value, indicating the very unique nature of these restriction endonuclease gene sequences. As more sequences are added to the database, however, these currently unique restriction endonuclease sequences may be used to identify restriction endonucleases with which they share significant sequence similarity.

Example 3 Method of Determining Whether a Sequence Identified According to Example I has Endonuclease Activity

Various methods can be employed to determine whether a DNA sequence identified as a potential endonuclease gene encodes an active endonuclease. Several such methods are described herein.

(a) In vitro transcription and translation of the identified ORF may be used to produce the protein encoded by that identified ORF (see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,689,573 U.S. Pat. No. 6,905,837, U.S. Pat. No. 6,383,770). The protein thus produced is then used in standard restriction endonuclease assays to see if it cleaves DNA. If DNA cleavage is observed, the restriction endonuclease and position of DNA strand breakage within or near the recognition sequence is determined by the methods described below. In vitro transcription-translation has an advantage that there is no requirement for host DNA protection by the companion DNA methyltransferase in order to express the endonuclease, as is usually the case when cloning the restriction endonuclease into a naïve host, such as typical laboratory E. coli strains. In vitro transcription and translation systems that have minimal endogenous, non-specific nucleases are preferable, such as the rabbit reticulocyte system.

(b) The candidate genes can be cloned and expressed in a host cell. E. coli is often used as a host for such cloning, but any host cell with a genetic transformation system could be used as well, such as Bacillus subtilis or yeast strains. Typically, the methyltransferase gene for the potential restriction system is cloned into a vector that has an origin of replication compatible with a second vector, which will be used for the endonuclease gene. The methyltransferase gene may be amplified by PCR using suitable primers, which primers often include a termination codon to end expression of the vector protein into which the methyltransferase gene is being inserted, a ribosome binding sequence to allow initiation of translation at the start of the methyltransferase ORF, and restriction sites to facilitate cloning. The methyltransferase gene can then be introduced into the host. Host cells expressing the methyltransferase are then grown and made competent.

If the potential endonuclease being cloned is an isoschizomer or a neoschizomer of a known enzyme, the known endonuclease can be used to test whether expression of the newly identified potential methyltransferase prevents cleavage by the known endonuclease. DNA from the methyltransferase expressing host, either the vector and methyltransferase gene or total host DNA, can be purified and digested with the known endonuclease. If the potential methyltransferase methylates the same recognition sequence as the known endonuclease, it will prevent cleavage by the known endonuclease if the methylation occurs at the same base position as methylated by the known restriction system methyltransferase.

It may be, however, that the potential methyltransferase modifies the same DNA sequence at a different position, i.e., either a different base within the recognition sequence, or at a different position on the same base, such as 5-methyl cytosine versus N4-methyl cytosine. If the base position modified is different, it may be that the potential methyltransferase modifies the host DNA but fails to protect against cleavage by the known endonuclease. This is more likely in the case of neoschizomers but can also occur with isoschizomers. Differences in methylation sensitivity can lead to new and potentially advantageous uses for isoschizomers or neoschizomers identified by the method of this application. If the potential restriction system being investigated has a different recognition sequence than the known endonuclease, it is likely that the cloned potential methyltransferase gene will not prevent cleavage by the known endonuclease. An exception to this would be if the known restriction system recognizes a sequence that is a subset of that recognized by potential restriction system. For example, MjaIV, recognizing GTNNAC, was observed to have weak similarity to HincII, recognizing GTYRAC. While MjaIV has a different recognition sequence to HincII, all HincII recognition sites are also MjaIV recognition sites, so MjaIV methylation will block HincII cutting even though MjaIV has a different recognition sequence. Once the methylase is introduced and expressed so as to protect the host cell, the endonuclease can then be introduced into those cells.

For cloning, the endonuclease gene is amplified by PCR using suitable primers, as for the methyltransferase, inserted into a vector compatible in the same host cell as the vector encoding the cognate methyltransferase, and transformed into the competent host cells already expressing the methyltransferase. Transformed host cells are then grown and a protein extract is made by appropriate methods, such as sonication or pressure disruption (french press). The protein extract is then assayed for restriction endonuclease activity by mixing various dilutions of the protein extract with standard DNAs, for example phage lambda DNA, phage T7 DNA, phage PhiX174 DNA, pBR322 DNA or pUC19 DNA, in a standard buffer, such as NEBuffer 2 or NEBuffer 4 (New England Biolabs, Inc., Ipswich, Mass.). The reaction products are electrophoresed on agarose gels and examined to see if the DNA has been cleaved.

The specific DNA sequence recognized by the endonuclease (the ‘recognition sequence’), and the exact position of strand cleavage within or near the recognition sequence, are then determined for the endonuclease (see Schildkraut, I. S., “Screening for and Characterizing Restriction Endonucleases”, in Genetic Engineering, Principles and Methods, Vol. 6, pp. 117-140, Plenum Press (1984)), U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,569, U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,337, U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,676, U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,793, U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,151, U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,308, U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,293, U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,942, U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,006, U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,839, U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,330, U.S. Pat. No. 5,824,529, U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,696, U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,326).

For example, to determine the recognition sequence of the endonuclease, the size of the fragments generated from digestion of several of the known standard DNAs, such as lambda DNA or PhiX174 DNA, can be estimated by comparison of the fragments produced by the unknown enzyme to DNA molecular weight standards (such as NEB catalog #N3012 lambda DNA-HindIII digest, NEB cat #N3026 PhiX174 DNA-HaeIII digest, NEB cat #N3232 1 kb DNA Ladder or other DNA size standards (New England Biolabs, Inc., Ipswich, Mass.)). The approximate sizes of the fragments can be entered into a program such as REBpredictor (http://tools.neb.com/REBpredictor/index.php), which will generate possible recognition sequences matching the fragment size input data. The output of this program is usually a list of multiple possible recognition sequences, only one of which is correct. The correct recognition sequence can be determined by mapping several positions at which the unknown endonuclease cuts the standard DNAs. Mapping is done by standard techniques in which the DNA is cut with the unknown enzyme and a known endonuclease. By using several known endonucleases, which cut at various positions in the DNA, the position(s) of cleavage of the unknown enzyme can be estimated. The correct recognition sequence predicted by a program such as REBpredictor will occur at the positions determined by the mapping experiment. When a candidate recognition sequence is determined, it can be confirmed by comparing the observed sizes of DNA fragments generated by cutting with the unknown endonuclease on various DNAs to the computer predicted sizes of fragments generated in silico by cutting at the predicted recognition sequence (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,569, U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,337, U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,676, U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,793, U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,151, U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,308, U.S. Pat. No. 4,999,293, U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,942, U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,006, U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,839, U.S. Pat. No. 5,196,330, U.S. Pat. No. 5,824,529, U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,696, U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,326).

The position of DNA strand cleavage relative to the recognition sequence can be determined by standards methods, such as that of cleavage of a primer extension product, which can then be electrophoresed alongside a set of standard dideoxy sequencing reactions produced from the same primer and template. Such an approach is exemplified in Example II of U.S. Pat. No. 6,194,188. Alternatively, a DNA can be cut by the endonuclease and then a standard sequencing reaction is performed using a primer located within 500 bases of the endonuclease-cutting site. The sequencing reaction will give normal sequence until it runs off the end of the template at the site of the endonuclease cut. Sequencing must be performed in both directions to observe the cleavage position of each DNA strand. Such an approach is exemplified in Example II of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/617,361.

The biochemical characteristics of the new restriction endonucleases identified by this method can be determined by standard techniques. Properties to be examined would include thermostability, activity in various buffer conditions, level of star activity and sensitivity to methylation at various positions within the recognition sequence. Endonucleases that differ from previously known isoschizomers in some or other of these biochemical characteristics may have uses that differ from the previously known endonucleases. 

1. A method for identifying a restriction endonuclease, comprising: (a) selecting one or more probes having at least 90% sequence identity to a sequence selected from SEQ ID NOS:1-153 and 156-188; (b) comparing the one or more probes with a database of sequences by a sequence similarity analysis to identify a sequence match; and (c) identifying the restriction endonuclease from the sequence match.
 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the sequence is an amino acid sequence and the sequence similarity analysis comprises a BLAST search using an expectation value, E, of less than or equal to e−02.
 3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the sequence is an amino acid sequence and the sequence similarity analysis is a PSI-BLAST search using an expectation value, E, of less than or equal to e−02.
 4. A method for identifying a restriction endonuclease, comprising: (a) selecting one or more probes having at least 90% sequence identity to a known restriction endonuclease sequence; (b) comparing the one or more probes with a database of sequences by a sequence similarity analysis to identify a sequence match, wherein the sequence match results from a sequence producing an expectation value, E, of less than or equal to e−02; and (c) identifying the restriction endonuclease from the sequence match. 